To think hypnosis would solve my weight loss problems?

[Starborn]

Yes, I know - eat less, move more. If I could follow that advice, I'd already BE losing weight!

I don't binge eat, but I nibble all day long and hate most fruits and vegetables.

I live a very sedentary life and hate exercise. I've also hurt my leg and can't go running to lose weight.

Have you ever tried hypnosis for weight loss and did it help?

YABU = Hypnosis won't help/didn't help me
YANBU = Hypnosis might help you to stick to a diet/helped me

You were I've got that one! Clearly haven't given it a chance! Thank you.. will have another go. These things are so ambiguous usually, talking about eating healthy food (nuts are healthy! Potato's are healthy!) etc. I just want someone to tell me 'food really isn't all that. The really fattening stuff isn't worth it and the rest of it just isn't something you need to spend time on'

Why do you nibble all day? Are you bored? What is your typical day's eating?
There must be some fruit and vegetables that you do like. Can you make soup to make them more interesting?

My sister did it but focused on her carving for sugar rather than weight loss. She is a control freak so didn't expect it to work but it did! She totally went off sugar after a few sessions to the point that the thought if it made her feel sock. She lost quite a bit if weight.

Sadly, the bad habit cane back during the lockdown and ages back where she started.

I paid a shitload of money to be hypnotised by Paul McKenna himself, as a treat to myself for a milestone birthday. Didn't do a thing - I got even fatter over the following decades. I only finally lost all the weight about a year ago using the Noom app and method.

Argh Gemma! You've shattered my dreams! But I've got Noom and it didn't do a thing. In fact I hate it. Their billing is tricksy and I find it condescending and fake.

It's like that American game whack a mole. Fix one thing and another pops up!!!'

I'm a hypnotherapist so obviously I'm a bit biased but I would say that it will certainly help you to lose weight if you're committed to it. As I say to clients, I'm not going to suddenly appear and shake my finger at you every time you're tempted to overeat/eat something you shouldn't. What I will do is help you to resist that temptation so it feels like a choice, not deprivation.

I would also look at the reasons for your constant nibbling - is it boredom? depression? emotional reasons? greed?. Then I'd work on tackling that - just telling you under hypnosis to stop nibbling might work, but dealing with the underlying reasons is far more effective.

I'm not a fan of hypnotic gastric band precisely because it doesn't address these reasons (except possibly greed) and is generally like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut - you really don't need it unless you're massively overweight.

Ideally I'd also look at what you're eating and help you to identify changes you can make, and also try to help you find exercise you can do, given your hatred of it and your problem with your leg. Having done that hypnosis can then help motivate you to make the changes we identify.

There's a very successful hypnotic weight loss programme rather charmingly called Fatnosis (I don't offer it so this isn't an advert). It's very motivational and straight-talking (so not for everyone) but produces some great results.

What I'd say is don't be afraid to talk to a hypnotherapist and ask questions about their approach. It's worth talking to two or three if you can as it's important to feel like the person gets you.

@grumpymacgrumpface Great to hear from you! Hypnosis was a miracle anti smoking cure for me. No willpower or pain required! I used to do self hypnosis years ago when I was in sales and made a fortune at the time. I think an expert is needed for weight loss though - it's so complex. The why what and how. It's all very well and good saying eat less but humans don't work that way! If we did we would all be skinny! I'll save your details and give fatnosis a go then see what bad habits are left, thank you! A bit of straight talking is what's needed with this I think. Being wooly around eating what's healthy etc leaves too much wriggle room!

I should think you'll do very well post lockdown with everyone trying to lose their corona stone. Especially if you can nail weight loss which is not easy!

I must add that I also did hypnosis for severe needle phobia prior to my Paul McKenna spendfest, which worked really well and made the following years of medical treatment much easier to bear. That was why I was surprised that the diet hypnosis was such an epic fail.

Thank you to all who have responded so far.

I put on a lot of weight when I gave up smoking but was already heavy. I do eat some fruits but over the last couple of years they have started to be really sour tasting since lockdown I don't go out shopping and the ones I get on the delivery are horrible. I would have grapes and nectarines and strawberries to nibble but they are vile now. It's not a changing sense of taste, DH says they are uneatable too. I eat bananas and very sweet apples.

I don't know why I can't stop eating, it's not a self-pity thing, and definitely not because I feel hungry! Greed and not trying both come into it. I think it's to replace the oral satisfaction of smoking but knowing that doesn't stop me, a few minutes later I'm looking for something else. Really don't want to go back to smoking.

@Zevia

I mean, it depends how suggestable you are and how much will power you have. Hypnotism isnt 'real' as such, but if you're the type that will play along and believe it has an effect, then it might help you muster additional willpower.

Not real????

Spend your money on proper therapy - CBT therapy will help in breaking the food/eating habit. Whether emotional, habit or bored eating.

Therapy doesn't help everyone you know. It did zero for me. It seems to be the go to answer for everything on MN but I find it can make things worse.

@JohannaC

Agreed. We've been brought up to believe that breakfast is 'the most important meal of the day' but its just not true. I speculate that our ancestors probably didn't eat porridge for breakfast and often had to forage/hunt before they could eat.

I did 18:6 for a while, for no reason particularly other than I was interested in the health benefits. I ate breakfast and lunch, but no dinner. I think there have been reports that eating at the beginning of the day is better in some way. I did it that way because I get at at 4.30/5 am, and am in bed at 9, and it seemed weird to me to eat a lot of food when I wasn't being active during the day.

OP, I've had hypnotherapy - it's nothing to do with being 'suggestible', as a PP said. The better your imagination, the better it works. I think you need to work out the precise thing you want it to achieve. We all need to eat to stay alive, so do you binge on cheese, or chocolate or crisps? Because that could be addressed.

Fruits are very high sugar anyway so I wouldn't spend too much worry on finding more fruit types to eat.

You might find that low-carb diets help?

I think you might find hypnosis helpful if the aim is to give you a new pattern of internal self-talk. I didn't use hypnosis but one thing I did do was that when I was tempted to having a snack between meals I would go out for a walk, and tell myself that what I was feeling in fancying a snack and not having one is the sensation of getting healthier, which is a good feeling that I enjoy.

Hypnosis is mainly mumbo-jumbo but can be helpful as part of a bigger strategy for some people. You have to genuinely want to make the behaviour changes that you are hoping thr hypnotism will help you with, and need to be the sort of person who will make every effort to go along with the hypnotic suggestions rather than instantly wanting to experiment to test whether you can break the new barriers just to find out how strong they are.

Im sure when I was looking for a hypnotherapy app to stop nail biting I found one for eating less.

I've been watching a stop eating chocolate one on YouTube as a go to sleep. It sends me off to sleep and I'm really not craving chocolate anymore at all. I'm pretty amazed really.

My good friend’s husband retrained as a hypnotherapist. I was very interested to learn about using it to stop smoking and to lose weight. He said he most important thing is that you need to want these things, are committed to it before you go for hypnotherapy and want the therapy to work.

With that said, I had an uncle who smoked 30 plus years, went to a group session to stop smoking and never had another cigarette again.

Well done for giving up smoking - that’s a huge achievement - sounds like you have some real determination and will power.

Look at how YOU did that - are there any traits that could help with the eating?

How did you feel when you kicked the habit? Proud or deprived?

I have tried loads of diets and they have worked whilst I am on them but afterwards the weight creeps in again as I haven’t addressed my bad eating habits.

So now I am chipping away by just introducing a single new habit each month - which will stay with me for life. It takes at least 28 days to embed a habit. It’s all increments and it’s helping me to concentrate on one thing at a time. I am doing it for long term health reasons and to feel mentally and physically better and trust that in time the weight will follow.

So I started with alcohol. I was drinking half a bottle of wine a night - beyond the calories in the wine itself drinking opened the floodgates to me snacking heavily on crisps and chocolate in the evenings when I drank....as well as lowering my mood and increasing my hunger the next day. It totally messes with your blood sugars so that you have cravings. When I was ready I stopped and focused hard on getting through the first month.

For me alcohol was the key to it all - like a domino effect.

After this was embedded I did 16:8. Again a month of focus on getting through the non eating times. It was really easy - after the first few days when I could have eaten my arm off. I deliberately didn’t worry about what I was eating in my “8hr feeding window” for that month - it was getting the hours right for my life. Some people do 8-4, 9-5, 10-6, 11-7 ... just work out what suits you. Again once established 16:8 really helps the cravings by resetting the appetite.

Then I concentrated on my water intake which was poor. I now have a pint of water first thing in the morning and half pint before each meal.

Next month I concentrated on having a huge protein based breakfast as my first meal of the day at a 11. I had 2 poached eggs with bacon on buttered toast. This absolutely filled me up after my 16hr fast so was v satisfying and pleasurable and cut my daytime snacking right down as I was stuffed. Over time I have cut out the butter and then the bread and replaced it with mashed avocado, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and spinach - so I am getting 4 of my 5 a day at breakfast (brunch)

Next month I looked at my evening meal. I decided that my breakfast was the same each day at 11 because I LOVE it - didn’t need lunch - so just had to think about evening meal. I have just reduced my portion sizes by about 1/4 - dropped potatoes, rice and pasta but importantly replaced with protein veg - beans / legume which are filling and keep the insulin levels steady so no carb spike and cravings.

I do have a pudding or choc treat every other day - and I plan it in - look forward to it, savour it and enjoy it.

It’s all about mindful eating rather than mindless eating.

I have also in the last 2 months started couch to 5 km. I would recommend it as a walking programme - you can brisk walk in the 60 seconds when you should be light jogging. Again it’s the gentle, focused incremental habit change that you need and want to install for life.

One thing at a time.

A few years ago I used an app called Stop Sugar Challenge (made by the same people who made Easyloss gastric band app that I had seen people talking about here). It killed my sweet tooth completely and made me completely go off chocolate. It did gradually creep back in unfortunately but the dislike of chocolate has lasted and I haven't had a single crumb of the stuff in about three years and truly don't think I will ever eat it again.

I think with sugar (if you have a sweet tooth and crave it) the problem is that you have to give it up completely, you can't just have the odd thing here or there. I'm going to give the app another go. I felt better in so many ways when I wasn't eating sugar, from better sleep to better skin to more energy.